Inspired by yesterday's weepy lament about the impending demise (or, at least, radical makeover) of Webster Hall, which I will always prefer to remember as The Ritz, there's been a whole lot of ephemera about same floating around social media. I exhumed this great clip of the mighty Bad Brains playing in that magnificent room, and thought I'd share it here.
Curiously, the video is labeled as being shot on December 27th, 1986 (see flyer above left). That's nice, but if you watch the clip, you can clearly hear hirsute Rock Hotel impresario Chris Williamson say the word "Flipper" (as in "let's hear it for..."), which leads me to believe it was actually shot about a month later (see flyer above right) on January 17, 1987, when the iconoclastic San Francisco noise-rock band opened for the Bad Brains. In that instance, it's a shame the Flipper footage wasn't also captured, as it would have been one of the last performances of Flipper bassist/vocalist Will Shatter, who would overdose and expire the following December.
Either way, it's a rollicking, splenetic set that is well worth your goddamn time. Enjoy it while it's up.
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